Cricket: K.G. Priyantha nurturing future stars in the UAE

For the past 22 years Kapugama Geeganage Priyantha better known as K.G. Priyantha has been teaching budding youngsters in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the ABC of Cricket. 

Priyantha a right-arm fast bowler with a rare bowling action, represented Isipathana College at all age groups of the game, and led the College 1st XI in 1987. 

He represented BRC, Air Force Sports Club, Moratuwa CC, NCC and Galle CC, before taking up a coaching assignment in the UAE. 

Today, Priyantha, an ICC-qualified Level III Coach, is the Head of Operations- Cricket and Senior Coach of the Desert Cubs Sports Academy (DCSA) in the UAE, owned by Presley Polonnowita. 

DCSA boasts of 5 Coaching centres in Dubai and Sharjah, with a Coaching staff of 48 and over a 1,000 youngsters, from 5-19 years, on the roll. 

Speaking about Junior Cricket, Priyantha said Coaches should be suitably qualified and knowledgeable to build up a foundation with proper techniques at Junior level. 

"If you don’t have quality Coaches who can teach the correct techniques, at the Under (U)-11 and U-13 levels, then you would not be able to produce quality players who could play productive Cricket at the next level," he added. 

Priyantha, who hails from Matara, was in Sri Lanka for a short holiday, and conducted a Coaching Camp for Junior Cricketers of Rahula College and Achievers Cricket Academy, at Uyanwatta Stadium. 

"If given the opportunity, I wouldn’t mind sacrificing a few years, to nurture Sri Lanka's Junior Cricketers," he said, when asked how he could contribute to the game in his motherland.